Feed device for a rock drill

ABSTRACT

A feed device which is extendible by means of two cooperating feed screws and which comprises a coupling for locking the screws against rotation relative to each other or one of them relative to a girder unit. By interlocking the screws only half the feed range is available, and by locking one of them to a girder unit the full extended length can be used. One of the screws is hollow and provided with internal as well as external threads, the latter of which cooperates with a nut on a rock drill carrying slide. A hose guiding reel travels with half the speed of the rock drill and maintains a uniform tension in the hoses leading to the rock drill.

United States Patent Kimber 'et al.

[54] FEED DEVICE FOR A ROCK DRILL [72] Inventors: Erich Voldemar Kimber,3 'Mariebergsvagen, 130 50 Vendelso; Josef Lewkowicz, l0 Edinsvagen, 13010 Ektorp, both of Sweden Filed: March 29, 1971 Appl. No.: 128,810

US. Cl. ..173/160, 74/424.8, 74/841 Int. Cl. ..E2lc 5/02 Field of Search..l73/l60; 74/424.8, 841;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,010,321 8/1935 Renfer..l73/l60X 3,500,941 3/1970 Rudman.; ..l73/ l60 22 l9 l2! m ll-| 1 Sept.19,1972

Primary Examiner-Ernest R. Purser Attorney-Munson & Fiddler [57]ABSTRACT of the screws is hollow and provided with internal as well asexternal threads, the latter of which cooperates with a nut on a rockdrill carrying slide. A hose guiding reel travels with half the speed ofthe rock drill and maintains a uniform tension in the hoses leading tothe rock drill.

7 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDsEP 19 m2 SHEET 1 OF 2 N? Dv DN .9 5

MN vw MN Q Q NQ 9v ONWOW m MMNQ N vN IXVEXTOR.

Erich Voldemar Kimber and Josef Lewkowicz BY "IUNSON & F IDDLERPATENTEDSENQIQTZ 3.692.124

SHEET 2 0F 2 AA \w Fig.4d 34 28 27 Fig. 4b

Erich Volc'lemar Kimber and Josef Lewkowicz MUNSON & FIDDLHR 1X VENTOR.

FEED DEVICE FOR A ROCK DRILL This invention relates to a feed device fora rock drill, which is intended to be attached to a support, preferablya drill boom.

In making drift mining more efficient drilling depths have beenincreased. To drill deep holes rationally means that his desirable todrill to the full depth with onedrill rod. Otherwise the first part ofthe hole is drilled with a short drill rod, which later on must beexchanged by a longer one. To be able to use long drill rods long feedbars are required. However, there is a problem concerning long feedbars, namely that the mobility and availability of the drillingequipment, specially in small area tunnels, is limited.

By practical and economical reasons there is often a demand that a rockdrill must be available for drilling of transverse holes in tunnels, forinstance for roof bolting or grouting. That is not always possible witha long feed bar, which is too long to be able to be turned around innarrow tunnels or drifts.

The main object of the invention is to provide a feed device, by-whichthe availability of a rock drill is in- I creased at the same time as itmake it possible to use long drill rods.

Other objects and advantages of the feed device according to theinvention will be apparent from the following description and drawingsin which:

. FIG. 1 is a shortened side elevational view of a feed device accordingto the invention.

FIG. 2. shows the feed device in FIG. 1 in a contracted position.

I FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view along line III-III in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4a is a longitudinal sectional view of a coupling device and showsthe coupling in a position in which the feed device is adapted for along drill rod.

FIG. 4b shows the same coupling in a position in which the feed deviceis adapted for a short drill rod.

In the drawings 1 designates a first girder unit and 2 a second girderunit. The girder unit 2 is slidably guided upon the girder unit 1. Forthis purpose the two girder units are provided with flanges 3 and 4,respectively, and guide dogs 5. Upon the girder unit 2 there is guided aslide 6 which is carrying the rock drill v7. To the rock drill 7 isconnected a drill rod 8. Moreover, the girder unit 2 is provided with atop flange 9 upon which a flange 10 on the slide 6 is guided. To theflange 10 are attached guide dogs 1 1 cooperating with the flange 9.

In a common way the girder unit 1 is slidably guided on a bracket 12onto which is attached a hydraulic cylinder 13 by means of which thefeed device is longitudinally displacable. In order not to make theother figures indistinct the bracket and the hydraulic cylinder is shownjust in FIG. 3) The bracket 12 is preferably supported by a drill boom(not shown). The girder unit 1 is provided with a bottom flange 14 whichis cooperating with a top surface and guide dogs 15 on the bracket 11.

At the forward end, the girder unit 1 is provided with joumalled in ajournal bracket 22 on the girder unit 2 and is provided with externalthreads as well as internal threads. The external threads are arrangedto cooperate with a nut (not shown) on the slide 6 for driving the slidealong the girder unit 2. The internal threads are arranged to cooperatewith another screw 23 which is rotatably connected to the front plate 16of the girder unit 1 by means of a coupling 24 and a bearing unit 25. l

The coupling 24 comprises a longitudinally shiftable sleeve 26 having athrough hole provided with splines 27 for cooperation with splines 28 onthe screw 23. The hole is enlarged at the ends of the sleeve. Theseenlargements are cylindrical and coaxial with the through hole and areprovided with splines 29 and 30, respectively.

The bearing unit 25 comprises a housing 31, which is rigid to the frontplate 16. The screw 23 extends into the housing 31 and is joumalledtherein by means of ball bearings 32. The housing 31 is closed at itsforward end by means of a cover 33. At its rear end, the housing isprovided with a rearwardly extending sleeve 34 which surrounds the screw23 and is provided with a flange 35 for connection to the housing.Moreover, the sleeve 34, which is connected to the bearing unit 25, isprovided with external splines 36 which are dimensioned so as to matchthe splines 30 of the enlargement of the sleeve 26. The forward end ofthe screw 21 is provided with external splines 37 too. These arearranged to match the splines 29 of "the opposite enlargement of thesleeve 26.

The working order of the above described feed device will be describedhereinunder.

To adapt the feed device for a long drill'rod (for example a 3,2 mstandard rod) the sleeve 26 is displaced forwardly into engagement withthe splines 36 of the rigid sleeve 34. (See FIG. 4a.) That means thatthe screw 23 via the splines 28, the sleeve 26, the splines 30 and 26and the sleeve 34 is locked against rotation. When rotating the screw 21by means of the motor 20, the external threads of the'former cooperateswith the nut on the slide 6, causing the slide and the rock drill 7 tomove along the girder unit 2. Simultaneously, the screw 21 cooperateswith the screw 23 whereby the screw 21 is being screwed onto the latter,making the girder unit 2 travel along the girder unit 1. The externaland internal threads of the screw 21 have preferably the same pitch sothat the rock drill 7 travels at twice the speed of the girder unit 2relative to the girder unit 1.

To adapt the feed device for a short drill rod (for example a 1,7 mstandard rod) the girder unit 2 and the rock drill 7 must be displacedinto their forward-most positions (see FIG. 2). The sleeve 26 is thenshifted rearwardly into engagement with the splines 37 on the forwardend of the screw 21 (see FIG. 4b), which means that the two screws areinterlocked and cannot be rotated to each other. It also means that thescrew 23 has been disengaged relative to the rigid sleeve 34 and is freeto rotate.

As the screw 23 is axially connected to the girder unit 1 and the screw21 is axially connected to the girder unit 2, rotation of the screw 21relative to screw 23 causes the girder unit 2 to move relative to thegirder unit 1. Thus, when the two screws now are interlocked there willnot be any movement of the girder unit 2 relative to the girder unit 1.Hereby, the feed movement of the rock drill will be caused by theexternal threads of the screw 24 only in cooperation with the slide nut.As the external and internal threads of the screw 21 have the samepitch, half the feed range is now used and the length over all of thefeed device is considerably decreased.

The rock drill 7 is supplied with motive and flushing fluids by means ofconduits 40 and 41. These conduits consist of hoses which are arrangedto travel over a guide reel 42. The guide reel 42 is journalled on astub axle 43 which is rigidly mounted at the rear end of the girder unit2. In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings the hosesare connected to tubes which are extending through a longitudinalchannel 44 in the girder unit 1. As the girder unit 2 travels at halfthe speed of the rock drill, when the coupling is adjusted for drillingwith a long drill rod, the guide reel 42 will continuously maintain auniform tension in the hoses. This is a very simple way of managing thehose tensions. I

When drilling with a short drill rod, however, this effect gets lost,but as the feed length is short no serious problems concerning the hosehandling will occur. Instead of tubes as parts of the conduits longerhoses may be used.

The invention is not limited to the described embodiment but can freelybe varied within the scope of the claims.

What we claim is:

1. Feed device for a rock drill consisting of a first girder unit and asecond girder unit slidably guided upon the first girder unit, a rockdrill carrying slide guided upon the second girder unit, and a driveunit comprising a motor and two cooperating screw members one of whichis hollow and provided with internal threads as well as external threadsfor cooperation both with the other screw member and with a nut on theslide, said hollow screw member being connected to the motor while saidother screw member is arranged to be unrotatably connected to the firstgirder unit so that, when rotated by the motor, the hollow screw membercooperates with said other screw member and with the nut, simultaneouslyfeeding the second girder unit along the first girder unit and the slidealong the second 7 girder unit.

2. Feed device according to claim 1, characterized in that said otherscrew member is arranged to be unrotatably connected to the first girderunit by means of a coupling which is arranged to, if desired not to usethe full feed length, lock the feed device in its contracted position byreleasing said other screw member for rotation relative to the firstgirder unit and interlocking the two screw members against rotationrelative to each other.

3. Feed device according to claim 2, characterized in that the couplingconsists of a longitudinally shiftable sleeve, which, in a firstposition, connects splines on said other screw member with splinesarranged on a non-rotatable sleeve portion attached to the first girderunit locking said other screw member against rotation relative to thefirst girder unit; in a second position the shiftable sleeve connectsthe splines on said other scr w member with s lines arran ed n theforward en of said hollow scre iav member, l nte ockmg the two screwmembers against rotation relative to each other, while said other screwmember is released to freely rotate relative to said first girder unit.

4. Feed device according to claim 1, characterized in that the internalthreads and the external threads of the hollow screw member have thesame pitch.

5. Feed device for a rock drill comprising a first girder unit and asecond girder unit slidably guided upon the first girder unit, a rockdrill carrying slide guided upon the second girder unit, and a driveunit arranged to simultaneously drive said second girder unit along thefirst girder unit and the slide along the second girder unit, wherebythe second girder unit is being driven at half the speed of the slide,said second girder unit being provided with a hose guide which isdisposed so as to maintain uniform tension in the fluid hoses leading tothe rock drill during feeding of the latter.

6. Feed device according to claim 5 wherein the hose guide consists of areel which is journalled on a stub axle, which is rigidly attached tothe second girder unit.

7. Feed device according to claim 6, characterized in that the firstgirder unit is provided with a through, longitudinal channel throughwhich the fluid hoses extend.

* IIK

1. Feed device for a rock drill consisting of a first girder unit and asecond girder unit slidably guided upon the first girder unit, a rockdrill carrying slide guided upon the second girder unit, and a driveunit comprising a motor and two cooperating screw members one of whichis hollow and provided with internal threads as well as external threadsfor cooperation both with the other screw member and with a nut on theslide, said hollow screw member being connected to the motor while saidother screw member is arranged to be unrotatably connected to the firstgirder unit so that, when rotated by the motor, the hollow screw membercooperates with said other screw member and with the nut, simultaneouslyfeeding the second girder unit along the first girder unit and the slidealong the second girder unit.
 2. Feed device according to claim 1,characterized in that said other screw member is arranged to beunrotatably connected to the first girder unit by means of a couplingwhich is arranged to, if desired not to use the full feed length, lockthe feed device in its contracted position by releasing said other screwmember for rotation relative to the first girder unit and interlockingthe two screw members against rotation relative to each other.
 3. Feeddevice according to claim 2, characterized in that the coupling consistsof a longitudinally shiftable sleeve, which, in a first position,connects splines on said other screw member with splines arranged on anon-rotatable sleeve portion attached to the first girder unit lockingsaid other screw member against rotation relative to the first girderunit; in a second position the shiftable sleeve connects the splines onsaid other screw member with splines arranged on the forward end of saidhollow screw member, interlocking the two screw members against rotationrelative to each other, while said other screw member is released tofreely rotate relative to said first girder unit.
 4. Feed deviceaccording to claim 1, characterized in that the internal threads and theexternal threads of the hollow screw member have the same pitch.
 5. Feeddevice for a rock drill comprising a first girder unit and a secondgirder unit slidably guided upon the first girder unit, a rock drillcarrying slide guided upon the second girder unit, and a drive unitarranged to simultaneously drive said second girder unit along the firstgirder unit and the slide along the second girder unit, whereby thesecond girder unit is being driven at half the speed of the slide, saidsecond girder unit being provided with a hose guide which is disposed soas to maintain uniform tension in the fluid hoses leading to the rockdriLl during feeding of the latter.
 6. Feed device according to claim 5wherein the hose guide consists of a reel which is journalled on a stubaxle, which is rigidly attached to the second girder unit.
 7. Feeddevice according to claim 6, characterized in that the first girder unitis provided with a through, longitudinal channel through which the fluidhoses extend.